The Metal Children
by Fear Die Rothaarige
Summary: They remember nothing. And they know nothing, except that they must get out.


_**The Metal Children**_

_by:_

**Fear Die Rothaarige**

She is surprised when she wakes up. The light is blinding and her back is stiff as if she had been laying there for a long while. She blinks. Something does not feel right. She tries to sit up, but feels an uncomfortable weight on her back. When she rolls her shoulders, she hears the sound of metal scrapping on metal. She turns to the mirror that is on the wall to her side and starts screaming. Attached to her shoulder blades are wings made of metal, covered in dried blood. She never sees the man with the syringe that puts her back to sleep.

It has been a few months and she has started to adjust to the body modifications that the scientist Orochimaru gave her. She can control them to an extent. They can flap and shake like a bird, but she has yet to take to the sky. He tells her that she is not ready for that adventure. When she ask why, he smiles and says that she is not complete yet.

Her memories start when she first woke up and saw the metal bolted into her skin and bones. At night, she has flashes of something that seem familar. She tries and tries to remember her dreams in the morning, but they always slip between her fingers in the groggy morning. It doesn't bother her that she can't remember the people that were supposed to be in her life. It bothers her more that she can not remember how she ended up as the pet of a mad scientist. She can only hope that one day she will remember.

Her routine was set in stone from being with Orochimaru for a year, but it was thrown out of loop with she meet the new addition to his little project. He was the boy with metal for bones. She had known he had been working on his new pet for some time now, but she wasn't sure what he was until she saw him. Dark black hair and eyes that shown red. She could tell by the way he walked that he was not used to his metal parts. More than once she saw him staring down at the sharp metal fingernails that would shine in the florescent light.

They become friends. It takes time. He does not trust anyone, especially not after he woke up with metal in his flesh. After almost a year of short, biting words and eyes that watched for her attack, he offers her his first smile. He doesn't know how he ended up as a pet. He doesn't even dream like she does of her life before. He is not bothered by the unknown. He is more focused on his way out.

Flying, he told her, was their way out. They would make a break for it in the dead of night, when Orochimaru is locked away in his lab working on his newest pet. He says that she can carry him. She argues that she is not strong enough to carry him, even if she knew how to fly. With a sly smirk, he says that he knows she is ready.

It is the night of there escape. She did not sleep well the night before. The images of her life before made her uneasy and she does not know why. She can't help but feel like something will go wrong. She can't help put feel like they won't make it out of this place alive.

He told her to act normal, like nothing was wrong. She does her best, smiling when she was supposed too. She tries to be the normal cherry blossom girl she is, but she can feel the probing eyes of Orochimaru on her more than once. They both know that it is time for them to go when Orochimaru closes the deadbolt to his lab behind him. Though, before her does, he tells them to be good little pets and not to cause any trouble. By both nod like they have no ace up their sleeves.

He has learned to move well with his mechanical parts. They allow him more speed and agility. He can move faster and quieter than any human alive. She is a different story. The wings on her part back her somewhat clumsy and they slow her down. Even after so long with them attached to her, she has not gotten used to these attachments.

They were never meant to be. She has never thought to ask how they planned to live on the outside world. She knows that it is different. Normal people do not have metal wings bolted to their shoulder blades. It will be easier for him. Sure he has metal fingernails and silver K-9 teeth, but he can hide the nails, or sand them down. He can explain the teeth as caps. Wings are not so easy to him.

He pulls her onto his back as they dash through the halls. He can lift her with ease. If it weren't for the walls and electric fences, he would be able to take them both to safety. But he can not get them to safety without her help. It is up to her to get her metal wings to work and take them away from the accursed hell that they ended up in.

They do not have long before they have been found out. They step into a large courtyard where she does her training. Standing on her town own feet, she unfolds her wings. They span almost half the courtyard. They are a work of art, no matter how wrong they appear to be. She takes a deep breath and feels his eyes on her as she starts to flap. With more power and will than ever before she makes her wings work. Faster and faster. Harder and harder. Finally her wings lift her from the ground. She offers him her arms and he manages to pull himself up onto her back. She feels his added weight and for a moment she struggles to take it. But with a few moments to adjust to it, she rises and they make their grand escape.

Only two hours in and she needs a break. They land in a small clearing and she would have collapsed to the ground if her companion had not caught her. He lays her out on a small blanket as he makes a small meal of meat, bread, and cheese for them to snack on. They cannot risk a fire yet. She falls asleep soon after he says he will stand watch.

A few hours later and they're on the move again. It is easy going until the sky turns black and the world around them is charged with static. It will be a bad storm and they need to find shelter.

The storm breaks around them before they can find shelter. The forest below them are far to thick for her to land anywhere safe. The winds tosses them around like they are nothing. He holds on tight, praying they will be okay. She battles hard, not wanting to let him down. But their luck eventually runs out. Lighting pops violently and the metal wings on her back are the closest things to conduct it. She does one desperate thing to try and save Sasuke, she rolls violently as the electricity surges through her. She can feel his weight free from her back. The smell smoke stings her nose and her vision blurs as she falls to the earth, much like a fallen angel.

She smells blood and burnt hard and skin when she comes to. She feels as if she is off balance. She stares up into the tree branches above her and see the start outline of one of her wings above her. Attached to the wings is her shoulder and arm with blood dripping from her china fingers. She blinks, then roughly coughs up the blood filling her lungs. She cast her eyes around and sees her dark haired friend a few feet away. Expect for singed hair, he seems to be fine. Metal bones are hard to break. She knows he will be fine.

A few moments pass and she sees him stir. It takes a few moments for him to register what had happened. She watches as his eyes take in her detached wing dangle from the trees above them. Then over to her bloodied, broken form. The realization hits him hard as he pulls himself up and wobbles over to her. With a touch so gentle for a man made of metal, her pulls her close, careful to avoid her missing limb.

"I'm sorry." He whispers, as he brings his lips down to hers.

With a flash, they remember everything. It flashes from when they were five years old and running around her backyard while their parents talk in the summer shade. Fast forward, he's moving away with a solemn face after his mother died. Ten years later, they run into each other at Konoha University. Three years together and they were about to be married.

But there is a rag soaked in chemicals pressed to her mouth one night when she was walking to their apartment from work. After a few months of desperate searching and heartbroken thoughts as to what could have happened to her, he ended up with the same fate.

"Sakura." He breathes and she loves how it sounds. It is familiar. And nothing has been familiar for the longest time.

"Sasuke." She whispers, her throat clogged with blood. And she smiles, happy that she knows now. Happy that she could die in the arms of the man that loved her, even after she became a monster.

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

**This had just been floating around in my head for a long while. I finally sat down and wrote it out. I'm not all that pleased with it, but I like the idea of it.**


End file.
